‘Did not factor in Modi charisma’, says Kakade who predicted BJP loss in Gujarat

BJP MP Sanjay Kakade, who hogged the headlines for predicting a dismal show for his party in the Gujarat elections, had to eat his words after the saffron party emerged as a comfortable winner in the state poll results on Monday.

An embarrassed Kakade said he had not factored in the impact of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "charisma" while making the pronouncement.

"We forgot to take into account the Modi charisma. Neither me nor my team factored that in our survey," the Rajya Sabha member told reporters at Pune.

"Modi charisma did the trick," Kakade said after it became clear that the BJP was set to retain power in Modi's home state.

Asked if his pronouncement amounted to anti-party activity, the BJP MP said, "I had not said anything against the party".

Last week, despite most exit poll surveys predicting a BJP win in the Gujarat Assembly polls, Kakade had claimed that the party would not win enough seats to form the government in the state.

"Forget absolute majority, the party will not even get enough number of seats to form the government. The Congress on the other hand will reach close to the majority mark," he had claimed.

"If at all the party retains power in the state, it will be only because of Narendra Modi," he said.

Kakade had claimed that his team conducted a survey in Gujarat and that his claim was based on the outcome of that survey.

"I had sent a team of six people to Gujarat. They mostly covered rural part of the state where they met farmers, drivers, waiters and labourers. Based on their survey and my own observation, I feel the BJP will not get absolute majority in Gujarat," he had said.

The BJP today looked set to retain power in Gujarat, with the party winning 46 seats and leading in 53 others in the keenly-contested polls to the 182-member Assembly.

PTI